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India cbank chief says 1.8 trillion rupees of 2000-rupee notes deposited, exchanged

FILE PHOTO: People queue as they wait for their turn to exchange or deposit their old high denomination banknotes outside a bank in Mumbai

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's central bank has seen nearly 1.8 trillion rupees ($21.80 billion) of 2000-rupee notes coming back to the system after a decision to withdraw them from circulation.

About 85% of these notes have come back as deposits into bank accounts while the rest have been exchanged, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Thursday.

In May, the RBI said it would withdraw these high-value notes from circulation and permitted their exchange or deposit until Sept. 30.

When announced, the value of these notes in circulation was 3.6 trillion rupees, implying that half of this amount has already been sucked out of the system.

The inflows could push up growth in bank deposits.

Currency in circulation was down by 272.8 billion rupees for week ended June 2, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed late Wednesday. It was down by 364.9 billion rupees in the week ended May 26.

($1 = 82.5700 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Swati Bhat; writing by Ira Dugal; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)